Let me start off this review by saying I have never really tried open-ear earbuds before, and the Soundcore Aerofit 2 AI Translation is my first tussle with this rapidly rising design philosophy. Unlike traditional earbuds that seal your ear canal and block out worldly noise with ANC, these sit just outside, letting ambient noise filter through while you listen to music or take calls. It’s a fundamentally different approach to personal audio - giving you mostly the same benefits as any other earbuds, but keeping you aware of your surroundings.
Priced at AED 449, the Aerofit 2 AI Translation packs some impressive specs: a four-position adjustable headband for different ear sizes, IP55 dust- and water-resistant design, wireless charging via Qi, multipoint connectivity, and support for both AAC and LDAC codecs.
With 20mm x 11.5mm racetrack drivers and Soundcore’s BassTurbo acoustic architecture, these promise to deliver substantial audio quality despite the open design. After spending a week or so with them across various scenarios - from quiet home listening to outdoor walks and gym sessions - I have got to say I am quite impressed, although it does come with a few caveats.
Soundcore AeroFit 2 AI Translation Earbuds
The Soundcore AeroFit 2 delivers robust sound quality and impressive battery life in a comfortable, adjustable open-ear design that’s perfect for outdoor activities and home listening. While the bulky case and struggles in noisy environments limit versatility, the strong feature set and premium build quality make these a solid choice for AED 449.
Pros
Strong bass and solid audio quality across frequencies
Spacious soundstage is great for movies
Comfortable for longer sessions
Excellent battery life
Robust build quality with an IP55 rating
LDAC and multipoint connectivity
Wireless charging support
Cons
Large charging case limits portability
Bass vibration can cause ear discomfort
AI Assistant is kind of meh
Design, Features and Comfort
The first thing that took me by surprise when I opened the box was the charging case. It’s massive. As someone who is used to the ever-shrinking size of earbud cases, this one is a big chunky boy.
At 2.5” wide by 3.5” long, the rectangular clamshell case feels bulky compared to the smaller ones used for most earbuds. This isn’t something you will casually slip into your jeans pocket - it’s strictly backpack territory. I understand the engineering constraint here; these earbuds have ear hooks that require more real estate, but it’s worth noting if portability is a priority for you.
That said, once you get past the size, the build quality is immediately impressive. The case feels solid and premium, with a single USB-C charging port, a recessed reset button on the outside, and an LED indicator. We received the White colourway, and the smooth matte finish feels like something that should cost considerably more. Both the case and earbuds have a reassuring heft without feeling heavy - they feel well-made and sturdy in your hands.
The earbuds themselves are capsule-shaped and loop around the ear, with a single speaker producing the sound. Each earpiece weighs around 10g, which contributes to its comfortable wear. The signature feature here is the 4-position adjustable speaker module that can be repositioned with a satisfying click. Adjust it in one direction to feel it sit tighter to the ear; adjust in the opposite direction to loosen the fit.
I kept it at Level 2 or 3 for fit, which angles the speaker module directly toward my ear canal for optimal sound quality while also providing a slightly tighter fit. The hook is comfortable and features soft-touch material. For extended listening sessions, they remained comfortable without creating any hot spots or pressure points.
However, they are not so weightless that you will forget you are wearing them. Still, convexly, because they gently ‘hook’ around your ears, it might seem like they could fall at any moment, especially if you are performing HIIT or moving your head too much, so it needs a bit of getting used to.
One reason these feel so comfortable is that they don’t seal your ear canal. After years of using traditional earbuds with ANC that effectively create a vacuum in your ears, the freedom of open-ear design feels genuinely liberating. There is no heat buildup, no pressure, no muffled feeling when you need to interact with the world around you. Of course, you lose the isolation that ANC provides, but that’s exactly the point of these earbuds.
But there’s a quirk I need to address when it comes to comfort: bass-heavy tracks create a physical rumble in your ears - almost like a small buzz or vibration against your ear. It’s an odd sensation, and during prolonged bass passages, it can actually make your ear itch. I first noticed it when I was watching the new Naked Gun, which would cause both the earbuds to vibrate whenever Liam Neeson spoke with his bass-heavy voice.
The earbuds are IP55-rated for dust, water, and sweat resistance, making them practical for gym sessions and outdoor activities. Touch controls are customizable via the Soundcore app, allowing you to configure one to three tap-and-hold gestures for playback control, calls, track navigation, volume control, and voice assistant access. The touch surface works reliably once you learn the sweet spot, though there is a brief learning curve.
These AeroFit earbuds also come with their own slate of AI features, one of which is an AI assistant called Anka (I guess, it’s based on the parent company, Anker?). You can evoke it by saying, "Hey, Anka”, or using a button press combination on the earbuds.
It can handle basic tasks like weather updates, answer any queries (like checking on scoreboards, etc), and control the earbuds (volume adjustment, track changes, etc.). While it’s a nice-to-have feature, I don’t see myself using this all that much. It works - even if it’s a little slow since it’s on-device - but I require more visual feedback when searching for answers or performing any tasks with AI. It can’t set reminders and alarms, which diminishes its usefulness a little bit.
On-Device AI Translation
As the name suggests, these eabuds have on-device AI Translation, which you can trigger by calling out to Anka or by visiting the dedicated Anka section in the Soundcore app. Here you get two options: Real Time Translations, to automatically translate a meeting or an audio file on-the-fly; and Face-to-Face translation, to converse with someone in another language.
I spoke with a friend who speaks Arabic in an Egyptian dialect (the app gives you over 100 languages, and many in different dialects) and the AI Translation does seem to get the gist of it. The English translation is pretty solid, and as you can see from the images above, it even got the restaurant's names right.
However, the English-to-Arabic translation is a little spotty, as it stumbles a bit with correct pronunciation. I asked my friend if this would be enough to get me through a conversation, and he said yes, so at least that's a positive.
I also tried translating Hindi, which is my native tongue, and it was pretty much spot on. It got the correct meaning and translated precisely back into English. Where it stumbles is on-the-fly translation, which I tested running a Hindi podcast, where it struggles to understand abrupt sentences, slang words and put it all together in a cohesive manner.
Regardless, this is a pretty handy tool to have in your back pocket, and since all of the translation is done on-device, it's much faster at it compared to cloud-based services of a similar nature.
The only thing you have to look out for is that, if you use Anka's voice commands to initiate the AI Translation, you will not be able to change the language, which needs to be done beforehand from the app.
Software and Audio Quality
The AeroFit 2 AI Translation uses the Soundcore app, which works seamlessly on both iOS and Android. The moment you have paired the device with your smartphone, the app picks up the device and presents a few options to tinker with it.
Here you can select from around 21 audio presets (I mainly stuck to the Soundcore Signature) and also features a custom EQ option if you want to customise the sound to your liking. You can also change the earbuds controls, allowing you to customise single tap, double tap, triple tap and long press to different functionalities of the device. There is also a Gaming Mode, which reduces latency as well as highlights footsteps for competitive games.
Finally, there is the Dual Connections feature for multipoint connections. However, an odd thing about this is that you can only enable pairing to the second device from the app, and not through the device. It gets the job done, but it’s a little different to how it works with basically every other earbud I have used.
As for the audio quality, the AeroFit 2 uses 20mm x 11.5mm racetrack drivers with Soundcore’s BassTurbo acoustic architecture to counteract the design disadvantages of open-ear earbuds in terms of bass reproduction. And I have to say, this works surprisingly well, as the bass reproduction is extremely powerful for an open-ear design.
The bass response is strong yet controlled, and provides a level of low-end presence that I didn’t quite expect from open-ear earbuds. It may not be as engaging and thumpy in some genres, but for most modern music styles, these deliver a satisfying body that is easy to groove with.
The advantages of the open design come to the fore in the mid-range, where more complex arrangements or most of the sound design lives, offering pleasingly spacious reproduction and making it easy to discover details. Vocals are forward and expressive, and the treble has plenty of detail without becoming harsh, though the presence in the upper frequencies increases the volume. The treble is more subdued at moderate volumes. Still, it becomes more energetic at higher volumes, resulting in a brighter sound and noticeably more concise reproduction of sibilants, which may or may not appeal to some.
They are not the best sounding earbuds I have heard, but they provide substantial high-fidelity audio for their class and handles most genres competently and provides an engaging and well-balanced audio.
For movies and TV shows, the open-back nature creates an impressively large soundstage. I genuinely prefer these over traditional sealed earbuds for home viewing in relatively quiet environments. There’s an airiness and spatial quality to the sound that makes dialogue feel more natural and effects more immersive, without the claustrophobic feeling that can come from sealed earbuds.
At low volumes, the bass still has sufficient presence, and overall sound quality remains enjoyable, though you will deal with issues of ambient sounds overpowering your music. This is the fundamental compromise of open-ear design. If you are in a noisy coffee shop, gym with music playing, aeroplane, or anywhere with significant ambient noise, these earbuds will not sound as good. The maximum volume might be sufficient to compensate for the ambient noise, but you will still hear almost everything around you.
Battery Life
The Soundcore AeroFit 2 AI Translation earbuds offer around 9 hours of battery life at high volume when using AAC. The case can fully charge the headphones three times and an additional time to 60%, giving a total battery life of 41 hours, or around that based on your usage. In real-world usage with mixed volume levels and primarily using AAC (huzzah for iPhone!), I found these numbers to be fairly accurate.
They also support fast charging: a 10-minute quick charge provides 4 hours of capacity, while a full charge takes 45 minutes. This case’s battery can be recharged fairly quickly, taking about 100 minutes with a fast charger. The case also supports Qi wireless charging, which is convenient for desk setups with charging pads.
This impressive battery life is possible because the headphones do not have ANC, and Bluetooth 5.4 also improves power efficiency. If you primarily use these for fitness or outdoor activities, you could realistically go weeks between charges, depending on your usage patterns.
Should you buy the Soundcore AeroFit 2 AI Translation?
The Soundcore AeroFit 2 AI Translation turned out to be an excellent introduction to open-ear audio. At AED 449, they deliver impressive sound quality with surprisingly strong bass, detailed mids, and crisp treble.
The adjustable fit works well, the build quality feels premium, and the battery life means you won’t be constantly hunting for a charger. They excel in quiet environments and outdoor activities where environmental awareness matters.
Just know that they struggle in noisy settings, the case is bulky, and the bass vibration takes some getting used to (and so does the loose fit). For home viewing and outdoor use, they are easy to recommend.
